Picture this: Slawomir Elsner

Between the gates

The gray reality in Poland, the birthplace of Slawomir Elsner, not only refers to the routines and poverty of everyday life. It also pertains to the landscape itself: the houses, the streets, even the people give off a gray impression. Attempting to embellish one’s living environment with bright colors only makes that gray reality more explicit. The bleak living environment and the futile struggle against it inspire Slawomir Elsner.

Many of his paintings depict gray anonymous architecture, illuminated with intense colors that suggest a semblance of a better life. The walls painted over with yellow, pink, or sky-blue, on which he hangs his desolate images, seem to echo the pictorial space. This installation reflects a mental atmosphere: emotions and reality are compressed into a piece of space.